Court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin

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The court of the Wehrmacht commandantur Berlin (also court of the armed forces commandantur Berlin , partly also court of the armed forces commandantur Berlin , abbreviated as GWKB) was part of the armed forces justice . It existed from January 1, 1934 until the liberation of Berlin and Vienna in April 1945 . It was responsible for a complex set of facts of a certain group of people (see below), especially for political offenses. The Central Court of the Army emerged from the court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur in Berlin in 1944 without replacing it. Compared to other Wehrmacht courts, the court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin was a very large court with a large number of cases and had branch offices in large cities of the Third Reich . The judgments of the court have been overturned by rehabilitation laws in most European countries , for example in Germany and Austria.

history

Based on the general history of Wehrmacht justice, it can be assumed that the court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin was established on January 1, 1934. The first judge at the court was Ernst Schaumburg , and Paul von Hase followed him from December 1940 to July 1944, among others . The judge was considered to be the “holder of the judiciary”, who assigned the individual cases to the various judicial military judicial officers (judges) for investigation, prosecution or defense. Court lords could confirm or change the legal opinion drawn up by the responsible investigating judge, except for death sentences or officers, where requests for changes had to be passed up.

On April 11, 1944, the Central Court of the Army was set up by decree, and essential competencies of the court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur in Berlin were transferred to the new court. Judge von Hase was then responsible for both courts, which worked in parallel.

Tasks and responsibilities

The court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin was (with a few special provisions, exceptions and amendments) responsible for on January 1, 1943

  • all soldiers of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin as well
  • all cases of
    • Decomposition of military strength (Section 5 (1) No. 1 KSSVO) with the exception of self-mutilation,
    • Violations of the treachery law,
    • political criminal cases corruption of particular importance,
    • Criminal cases against "unnatural fornication" (especially homosexuality )
  • all deserters who were not found after three months.

On April 11, 1944, the Central Court of the Army fell under the following responsibilities :

  • Political criminal matters,
  • Criminal cases against unnatural fornication,
  • Corruption cases of particular importance
  • Wanted items,
  • items assigned by special arrangement and
  • Retrial decisions.

As a result of the jurisdiction over proceedings for the degradation of military strength, a large number of proceedings with political content in the broader sense ended up at the court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin. The prosecution of remarks and actions that degrade the armed forces represented a core concern of the armed forces justice, which expresses the following quote from a legal commentary from 1940:

"If today, for example, criminal offenses were to occur in an accumulation endangering male discipline, as happened in all armies during the [First, Note] World War, it would be possible to go as far as the death penalty in each individual case, regardless of the otherwise applicable sentence (§ 5 KSSVO). "

- Erich Schwinge : 1940

Size and locations

The court of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Berlin was the largest court in the Wehrmacht. It had at least one branch in Vienna, and in some cases more than 100 judges were on duty at the two locations of the court. The most relevant judge of the court was Paul von Hase . The Vienna branch was set up immediately after Austria's “Anschluss” in 1938 and existed until 1945. It is certain that the court conducted around 46,000 proceedings. No generalized figures are known about the quality of the judgments and the ruling practice due to the poor file situation. Only cautious extrapolations can be made about the number of death sentences: For this court - based on statistical calculations - several hundred death sentences can be assumed.

Various addresses appear in the literature and primary sources as the Berlin location of the court, including a location at Lehrter Strasse 58 , but also at Am Weidendamm 2 and Witzlebenstrasse 4–10 . The locations Franz-Josefs-Kai 7-9 and Hohenstaufengasse 3 , both in the 1st district , can be used for the Vienna branch .

Various departments (at least I to XII) existed at the judicial level to fulfill these tasks, as well as the investigation agencies for the complex area of ​​searching for fugitives. Investigation centers were at least in Gera, Danzig, Vienna and Strasbourg.

literature

  • Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005.
  • Roland Kopp: Paul von Hase. From the Alexander barracks to Plötzensee. A German soldier biography 1885–1944 . Berlin 2001.
  • Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991,
  • Manfred Messerschmidt, Fritz Wüllner: The Wehrmacht Justice in the Service of National Socialism. Destroying a legend . Baden-Baden 1987.

Literature on Austria

  • Mathias Lichtenwagner: Blank spaces. On the topography of the Wehrmacht justice system in Vienna before and after 1945 . Vienna 2012.
  • Ela Hornung: Denunciation as a social practice. Cases from the Nazi military justice . Vienna 2010.
  • Walter Manoschek (ed.): Victims of Nazi military justice. Judgment practice, prison system, compensation policy in Austria . Vienna 2003.
  • Manfred Messerschmidt: The "decomposer" and his informer. Judgment of the Central Court of the Army in Vienna . In: Wolfram Wette (Ed.): The Little Man's War. A military story from below . Munich 1992. pp. 255-278.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 134. Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991, pp. 136-137. Roland Kopp: Paul von Hase. From the Alexander barracks to Plötzensee. A German soldier biography 1885–1944 . Berlin 2001, p. 177 f.
  2. ^ Heinrich Dietz: Wehrmacht Disciplinary Order of June 6, 1942 with supplementary war regulations . Leipzig 1943, p. 27 f.
  3. ^ Heinrich Dietz: Wehrmacht Disciplinary Order of June 6, 1942 with supplementary war regulations . Leipzig 1943, p. 27 f. Manfred Messerschmidt: The judge . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , 52nd vol., H. 6, 2004. pp. 493–504, here p. 493.
  4. ^ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 136.
  5. ^ A b c Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933–1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 141.
  6. ^ Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991, p. 95.
  7. ^ Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich . Volume VI. Boppard 1995, p. 563, note 20.
  8. ^ Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich . Volume VI. Boppard 1995, p. 565.
  9. ↑ Michael Eberlein et al .: Military Justice under National Socialism. The Marburg Military Court . Marburg 1994, p. 86.
  10. ^ A b c Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933–1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 134.
  11. ↑ Erich Schwinge: The development of male discipline in the German, British and French armed forces since 1914 . Berlin 1940, p. 54 f. Quote n .: Manfred Messerschmidt: The "decomposer" and his informer. Judgment of the Central Court of the Army in Vienna . In: Wolfram Wette (Ed.): The Little Man's War. A military story from below . Munich 1992. pp. 255-278, here p. 275.
  12. ^ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 134. Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991, p. 111.
  13. ^ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 135. Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991, p. 95.
  14. ^ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 136. Roland Kopp: Paul von Hase. From the Alexander barracks to Plötzensee. A German soldier biography 1885–1944 . Berlin 2001, p. 177 f.
  15. ^ Mathias Lichtenwagner: Blank spaces. On the topography of the Wehrmacht justice system in Vienna before and after 1945 . Vienna 2012, p. 158.
  16. ^ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Paderborn 2005, SS 168. Manfred Messerschmidt, Fritz Wüllner: The Wehrmacht Justice in the Service of National Socialism. Destroying a legend . Baden-Baden 1987, pp. 48-51. Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991, pp. 93-116.
  17. ↑ Roland Kopp: Paul von Hase. From the Alexander barracks to Plötzensee. A German soldier biography 1885–1944 . Berlin 2001, p. 177. Homepage of the German Peace Society - United War Resisters, Darmstadt Group dfg-vk-darmstadt.de; accessed on June 15, 2015
  18. ^ Homepage of the Catholic Military Pastoral Care Berlin goruma.de; accessed on June 15, 2015
  19. ^ Mathias Lichtenwagner: Blank spaces. On the topography of the Wehrmacht justice system in Vienna before and after 1945 . Vienna 2012, p. 96 f. and 152 f.
  20. ^ Fritz Wüllner: The Nazi military justice and the misery of historiography . Baden-Baden 1991, p. 95. Manfred Messerschmidt: Die Wehrmachtjustiz 1933–1945 . Paderborn 2005, p. 134 f.